Sat 24/07/10 09:38
Today I started by going to the bus station to try to get a ride out of Stockholm. Unfortunately my expectations that there would be dozens of choices to exit Stockholm for Berlin either by bus or by train was quickly squashed. I guess it’s not as big destination as I thought I even went to a travel agency that was supposed to be the exclusive ticket provider for the main bus company in Europe, and they were closed. I ended up extending my stay in Stockholm for at least a day or until I can find a bus somewhere in the direction of Germany.
After all the bus stuff was finished, I started to go exploring more of Stockholm. I began on the street that I mentioned in an earlier post. The street makes for a good starting point because it starts where my hostel is located and ends at the parliament building about 2 or three miles away. From the parliament building I kind of just wandered around, mostly following the groups of people. My first stop was to watch the changing of the guard. It’s always an interesting thing to see. The Swedes do a whole parade complete with a marching band as they make their way into the courtyard where the actual ceremony takes place. Unfortunately there were so many people that I wasn’t able to see most of the ceremony. It was kind of funny too, because at one point I was at the front of most of the people, and as the time got closer, I was somehow slowly pushed back. Seems to happen way too often to me.
From there I headed across a canal and into another touristy area. It was very similar to the other street, but not as many people. I stopped to take a break in this one center area, and in marches about 30 guys with flags. I didn’t know what they were doing but it was definitely some sort of protest. They lined up on both sides of the center and just stood there. Eventually the police showed up but no riot happened, at least while I was there.
It was starting to rain by the time I realized that there wasn’t going to be any excitement between the police and the protestors, so I decided to start making my way back to the hostel. I stopped at several places to take some pictures, but to be honest there really isn’t a lot to photograph. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of really beautiful buildings, but in most of the situations, they are hard to get a good photo of.
